While working in the emergency department, I frequently see many ankle injuries, in particular, ankle sprains.  I normally give them some ice, a compression bandage and some crutches and tell them to go home, elevate the foot & rest.  But never would I have thought I would need to carry out my own advice on myself... which is exactly why I'm typing this now with an ice pack on my ankle after sustaining an inversion right ankle sprain.  It was so dumb as to how I injured it too.  We have this running stairs championship ladder at work where you have to run up 54 steps as quickly as you can.  It was just so unfortunate that I slipped off a step while sprinting up.  In the end I still won the championship and defended my title but at the expense of my right ankle and a weekend out... grrrrr!! 

Oh well, its supposed to be 47 degrees this weekend anyway.  Home with the air conditioning while watching DVD's flat on my ass sounds like a good idea... lets hope the electricity grid holds up!!

My next wine & cocktail party is just around the corner! In fact, it's only 6 days away.  I've totally lost count of how many of these parties I've hosted.  I'm thinking this is probably the 6th one.  Usually there is a theme to the food that is served.  Last time was Thai food, but this time, its going to be Chinese... in particular, dumplings... lots of dumplings. 

I've been brought up in a family where my mother makes the best dumplings.  It's usually a family affair, sitting around the dining table, wrapping dumplings.  This is a time consuming process, but its a great time for some family bonding.  This time however, I'll be running the show!

Today, I did a test run of the dumplings.  Below is a step by step process:

1.  Prepare and throw all ingredients into mixing bowl. This included pork mince, chives, eshallots, egg, pepper, salt, grated garlic, grated ginger, soy sauce & seasame oil.

2. Get your hands dirty and mix all ingredients

3. Wrap dumplings

4. Serve and eat! Yummmo!!

And thats how you make damn fine dumplings!!

Whoever marketed Jenga blocks is a genius!  Who would have thought you could have so much fun with a few simple pieces of wood! However, Jenga is a lot more fun, when you don't play it conventionally, instead, it's a whole lot more interesting if you invent your own method of building a tower, then bit by bit, trying to dismantle it without toppling it down.  I do have to say though; it’s more fun trying to build a tower that stands than trying to dismantle it.  It's definitely more challenging! 

If you've never played Jenga before, go check out Norita board game cafe at Lv 2 / 77 Liverpool St., Sydney.  It's a nice little joint for a group of friends to hang out for board games + dessert on the side.

Juliet and I saw Jupiter and its 4 largest moons yesterday.  It was as clear as the words you are reading now.  In fact I could even see the 2 rotating cloud bands circling the planet.  It was an amazing sight.  Of course, I didn't see this with my naked eye.  This observation was of course from a super high power telescope at Sydney Observatory at Observatory Hill. 

It is possible though to see Jupiter with your naked eye, as it's a fricken massive planet, the largest in the solar system and actually 2.5 times bigger than all the other planets in the solar system put together.  If jupiter was hollow, it could fit 1000 earths into it! Thats mind boggling (See photo below)  Because its so damn massive, it is very very easy to spot in the sky, as it is the third brightest object in the night sky, after the moon & venus.  However, it really is no fun when looking up in the sky without a super charged telescope, because all you'll see is a bright speck in the night sky. 

Earth Vs. Jupiter

Speaking of bring specks, there were other bright specks that we could see in the night sky - the southern cross, the Libra constellation, the Scorpio constellation, the Sagittarius constellation, and Alpha Centauri, our closest solar system.  Alpha Centauri is the solar system that is frequently talked about in popular fiction, as a future destination for colonisation.  However in reality, at 4.37 light years away, the idea of colonising Alpha Centauri is far fetched.  (It takes 4.37 years for light to reach between earth and Alpha Centauri).  So that roughly equates to 41.5 trillion kilometres to get there.  With the current space ships we have, that would take about a 1000 years.  Yeah... not in our life time.

I was shocked and appalled to hear & see that my star sign Sagittarius, which is meant to be a horse and an archer, is in fact not that at all!!  I always thought it was cool, that I was the archer, but from relevations at the observatory, Sagittarius is in fact in a shape of a teapot! And to make it worse, an upside down teapot! (Being in the southern hemisphere).  I was sad!  That just totally destroyed my ego.

I saw my name in the paper… in a size 6 font on page 31 in the Daily Telegraph on Saturday, July 26, 2008, amongst 11,000 other names in size 6 font.It was a small token of appreciation from the organizers of World Youth Day 2008 for a week of dedicated volunteering during World Youth Week.I think I felt a little bit special, but not that special.Of course I didn’t expect my name to be plastered out in size 20 font and in bold.In any case, members of the general public wouldn’t even flip to that page.If I wasn’t a volunteer, I too would skip right past that page.Of course, I didn’t volunteer at WYD for any glory.In fact I got so much out of just being amongst the action.

Many people have since asked me why I wanted to volunteer at WYD.Quite frankly, it’s because I have no Catholic friends – and I damn well am not going to sign up as a single / solo pilgrim.And I thought as a volunteer I can get right up amongst the action.I was a little wrong about that though, as I was stationed on the first night (Tuesday 15/7/08) on Sussex St., well away from the action at Barangaroo.Consequently I missed all the action of the opening Mass which I was quite BUUUMMMMED about.

Still bummed.

But at least they fed us well.Lots of cakes / buns / drinks / fruit + a hot casserole dish.I thought this was yummo, considering it was dinner on the go and fairly instant.On top of all this, all the Crispy Cremes you can gorge yourself on.They were WYD Crispy Cremes too! All with a white cross on top of each donut!!There were so many donuts that we could take home as many as you could carry.I ended up taking home about 2 dozen of them!

I signed up to be a volunteer in 2007, and after a series of phone interviews + group interview, they decided that I would be better off taking on the role of a crowd marshall team leader. Well that was a little bit special I thought.  Me, a super team leader!

What makes WYD so exciting is the atmosphere that these pilgrims create.You can feel like pilgrim vibe everywhere you go, not only in the city but throughout metropolitan Sydney.There are just pilgrims everywhere!!On trains / buses / in shopping centres / pubs / restaurants, you just can’t get away from them.It truly is an amazing sight walking amongst a sea of pilgrims flying their national flags and carrying their brightly coloured backpacks.

Speaking of brightly coloured backpacks, who ever came up with that design and those colours should be shot.They’re such juvenile colours and so small!I really felt like a kid with that backpack on.

So as I missed all the action on that Tuesday as I was stationed outside the grounds of Barangaroo, I was determined to get into the main grounds on that Wednesday night (16/7/08).So that I did, but what was really shit was on that night, despite there being this well organized concert throughout the night, there were always only a small pocket of pilgrims around.I could have sworn that there were more volunteers & police around than there were pilgrims.It was an absolutely ridiculous sight.I felt so bad for the performers – it was really a waste of their time.I sent all my team members home because as crowd marshals, they really didn’t have any crowds to marshal.So there I was, slaving away in my sector in Baranagaroo, all alone, standing there, having not much to do, trying to get into the music, but this was proving to be very difficult in the cold… As 10:30pm approached, I finally left my post and headed home – which happened to be in Chipping Norton during this week( – what a long ass train ride!). Thanks to Ally for putting me up during that time! I did give her a massive box of Crispy Cremes, which she subsequently threw out as she was scared she was going to get fat just prior to her wedding date!! Pfft! You’re a stick anyway Ally!

Thursday (17/7/08) was coined “Super Thursday” as this was the day that hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and the general public would descend on Sydney CBD to welcome the Pope. And what a sight it was! Barangaroo was pack to its maximum capacity and many had to be turned away.I was stationed just a few sectors away from the main stage so I had clear view of everything.And yes I did see the Pope, but sadly, no, I didn’t get his autograph.I did however get about 100m of the Pope which I thought was a good effort!

Again sadly, as the Pope left, so did all the Pilgrims, so by the time the concert started that night, most of the pilgrims had disappeared already.This was a huge shame, on that Thursday night, they had some well known people like Diesel and Vanessa Amorosi who really rocked the joint for all those who stayed behind.Shame.

WYD was a great opportunity to meet some wonderful people from all over the world.While the pilgrim crowds and the noise they generate closely mimic a football crowd, however unlike a football crowd, these pilgrims are really friendly, law abiding, fun loving people.It definitely wasn’t hard to start a conversation with these people.

Friday (18/7/08) was another big day at Barangaroo, attracting the majority of all the pilgrims.Friday was the Stations of the Cross play and Baranagaroo was host to Jesus’ final moments, with His crucifixion on the north west corner of Baranagaroo, against the backdrop of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.That afternoon, the weather changed dramatically, and we were faced with a bone chilling wind.I felt really sorry for the actors on the cross who wore nothing more than the loincloth.You could see them shivering up on the big screen when they were on the cross.

It was good to see that the majority of the crowds stayed for the night concert which was hosted by Hillsong.Finally, a night where the place actually rocked! It definitely closely resembled a rock concert that night.

Saturday night (19/7/08) would prove to be the more challenging day for me.It was the day where all the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims would congregate at Randwick Racecourse for the night vigil and then the sleep out under the stars for the final mass on Sunday morning.It was an amazing sight at Randwick Racecourse – hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, each holding a candle - lit up the arena in an eerie glow.

I had trained for the whole week for my Saturday shift because I knew physically and mentally, it could be a challenging day.I was to do a night shift starting at 9pm and finishing at 6am the next day, then try and stay awake for the big final Mass, then try and get home amongst all the crowds.So every night during the week, I would try and stay up later and later so I wouldn’t get tired during that shift.I had thought when I first saw my roster, what kind of crowd marshalling would I be doing at those hours when everyone would be sleeping.Well I of course was a bit naïve about those who don’t sleep, those who like to party all night long, those who like to disturb everyone else trying to get to sleep.You meet some strange people when at these early hours of the morning.There were groups of pilgrims congregating together in a circle singing and praying, then you have big rowdy groups banging on drums and marching up and down, screaming out some incomprehensible chants, then there were some that just don’t sleep and just wander around the grounds talking to whoever would listen to them.On the whole though, the pilgrims were very well behaved.The only problem I had that night was how bloody cold it was, esp. around 3-4am.I don’t think I have ever enjoyed a hot cup of tea as much as I did that night – I loved that feeling of the hot liquid going down my oesphagus, warming up the chest.One of life’s simple treasures!

I can’t remember the last time I saw the sunrise.But I think the sunrise that I saw on Sunday morning (20/7/08) made up for all the ones that I had previously missed.The dark purple, blue & purple colour in the sky was so vivid and intense.This unfortunately did not last long and after a few minutes, the colours faded and became much more subtle.

My first and last experience of the WYD pie was for breakfast on Sunday morning.This was no ordinary pie – it was a fat ass meat pie which subsequently burnt my tongue.Grrr.After chomping down the pie, I zonked out. ZzzzZzzzzzzZZZ… only for 10min.It wasn’t very comfortable sleeping on a row of cafeteria chairs.

So after downing a can of black V, I managed to stay awake for the final mass celebrated by Pope himself.I have to say that although this mass was celebrated by God’s representative on earth, I found it hard to absorb the piousness of the event.This was due to a combination of not being in a church, and also being so bloody tired.Furthermore, it was very hard to understand the Pope’s heavy accent.I ended up tuning out because I couldn’t concentrate on his heavily accented monotonic voice.Nevertheless, I felt it was such an overwhelming experience being part of this significant event.

So after engorging in a final WYD meal of a lamb casserole, I tried to drag myself off my chair and tried to head home amongst the other 400,000 people who attended the final mass.The mass exodus from Randwick to Central station caused such a human road block that every now and then we would cease to move altogether.In the end the 3.5km walk from Randwick to Central Station took about 90min instead of an estimated 40min walk.So by the time I got to central, I was pretty buggered, not only due to being squashed amongst so many people but also for being awake for more than 28 hours by this time.

… long drive home… 33 hours awake… ZzzzZZZzzz

Many people have since asked me what WYD08 was like.All I can say is that it was such a fulfilling experience.It was such an amazing and exciting period of time.The buzz and spirit that the pilgrims brought with them really transformed the city into one big celebration of faith.I feel so blessed to be part of this significant event.